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First photos with the Yashica Mat 124g

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I received my new camera in the mail from KEH.com. As soon as I got home from work I loaded it up with film (Portra 400) and took it out to shoot a few pictures. Those first few shots didn’t come out exceptionally well, composition-wise. Here is one that I took the next day at the library:

Looking at these I realize that I need to be mindful of where the lens is located on this camera. It is the lower lens. The upper lens is the one used to compose the shot.

Thoughts on Portra 400: I’m not sure I absolutely love it. The tones are certainly subdued, yes. At this point I love the Ektar over the Portra 400. Perhaps this film will find it’s place though. And maybe it was just because I was getting my feet wet with the camera. I have 5 more rolls of it to play with. We’ll see if I change my mind about it…

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4 thoughts on “First photos with the Yashica Mat 124g”

Yeah, the Portra film was really developed for wedding photography primarily. Not a lot of contrast. Kind of my same objection to the T-Max B&W films. You can make the shots a little more punchy by over-exposing your shots 1 – 2 stops. A very dense negative can usually produce a little more contrast. You should also get a polarizer. And of course, when shooting B&W, you might want to get an orange and red filter also.

As for the parallax issue, isn’t there a line on the focusing screen to indicate proper composition? If not, you’ll soon figure it out through experience. I love your image above on the bridge. It’s beautiful. I look forward to seeing more! 🙂

Published by Moni

I am a Children's Librarian living in the Portland, Oregon area. When I am not Children's Librianing I like to play with cameras and film. I also like playing the ukulele, knitting, sketching, and hiking.
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